Iron Girl Del Mar 5K–Light on Pictures

Rather than steal the shit out of other blogger’s photos, this will be light on pics. I do have to keep up my reputation of being a mediocre (read: lazy) blogger, you know.

Because I was too cheap to pay the $45 or whatever for the 10K, I decided I would do the 5K which after the discount code was like $24. I could not pass up a cheap 5K 30 minutes from my house. Not to mention the motherload of awesome shwag this race gives out. This race is worth every penny. Thanks to the time change, I was easily able to haul my butt out of bed at 5am and I didn’t feel like death warmed over.

I donned my Target running skirt, new pink Zensah Schwaggle socks, blue hat, and Mizuno Precisions. I also put on makeup (seriously, apocalypse s coming) because my face is staging a revolt this week. Apparently my acne is the 99%. Occupying every spare centimeter of my chin.

I parked at the track around 6:30am (I like to be early for races, pretty much the only thing I do punctually) and walked over the packet pickup. Found Sarah right away and then we parted ways before the start. I managed to find Nicole and Heather by the start/finish portajohns. Nicole left us to float her way through the 10K.

As Heather, her friend Snork, and I were chatting before the start of the 10K, this self-righteous heifer decided to scold us for talking during the Star Spangled Banner (meanwhile, her hat was on, so, apparently only her definition of respect/patriotism is the “right one”). Honestly, I didn’t even realize it was playing – we were pretty far from the start line so it wasn’t all that loud. I had no other response than “Sorry” because that’s what she wanted to hear, and, also, I was completed stunned and could think of nothing else. However, after she walked away I got really pissed and thought of everything I should have said (though, really, better I didn’t because that would just take it down to her level). It still fires me up thinking about it. Scolding is not a good way to get your point across to adults. It only pisses people off. But apparently that’s how a lot of people are with this stuff. All emotion and no reason. Does NOTHING good to approach it this way.

Anyway, after I ranted/verbally vomited to Heather we walked over to the start line, and I tried to get close to the start. I had a crapshoot chance of an age group placement, so, figured might as well get on up there.

Per usual, I had walkers in front of me (walkers do not belong 5 feet behind the start line. No.), I managed to maneuver around them and settle into a pace where I didn’t feel like I was dying. Around the .3-4 mark, the 5K doubled back over the original course. And guess what? Not everyone had left the chute area yet, so it was like a game of chicken getting through. I hope they fix this next year because that is a bad course design.

I started picking the kids off in the first mile (they always start too fast). Second mile, was mostly uphill, but I still managed to catch an adult and another kid. Then one woman passed me (the only one), on a mission. I swear she must have started late the pace she was going. I hit the downhill and tried to pick up speed. I started gaining on yet another kid who appeared to be fading. I turned the corner to the finish chute, ran up beside her and said “Come on! Kick it in!” and she proceeded to do exactly that and beat me by a second. I’m fairly certain had I not said anything that probably wouldn’t have happened. But, hey, I felt she needed a kick in the ass (in a nice way, obv). And what’s 15th vs 16th anyway. Still not first, second, or third. And clearly not in my age group (I’m not THAT stupid).

I ended up finishing 16th out of 936. And because 30-34 age group sucks, 5th out of 156. Chip time 23:27 – 5 second PR since July.

And this is where I do what everyone says is annoying about running bloggers, but I DON’T CARE. The course was .11 long. That, my friends, translates to 40-45 seconds.

Previous 5K (RSP 5K in July) stats:

This course was short (3.06) and only had an elevation gain of 19 ft with a net loss(!). Avg pace of 7:42/mi.

Iron Girl Del Mar 5K stats:

.11 long (3.21) with an elevation gain of 77 ft (4 times that of RSP). Avg pace of 7:19/mi.

So, I’m sorry to annoy those folks that hate running bloggers nitpicking the length of course, but we are talking about a 23 second per mile improvement. If you just look at the 5 second PR, it appears to be the smallest of improvements. But 23 seconds per mile is significant. Especially on a harder course.

So, that’s my take away with this race.  I ran significantly faster than July. I passed a butt-ton of people, was only passed once, and managed a strong finish (looking at the Garmin pace/time graph I would venture to say that the last .5-.75 mile was sub 7:00). Would have easily been a sub 23 if it weren’t for that pesky extra bit. Next time!

Edit:

I totally forgot to mention our post race run! I was so focused on the recapping the race part that I had a brain fart. After finishing we found Ashley and ran another 6 miles up to Solana with her BF snapping blogger pics for her (which everyone subsequently stole. Maybe we should be paying him. Ha!), then headed over to the Naked Café and met up with Linzay, another Ragnar buddy blogger (directing positive healing thoughts to her torn hammy). Another great blogger/runner weekend!